A novel long-reach robot with propulsion through water-jet

Abstract

Long-reach robots offer good performance developing tasks in areas where the access is difficult or dangerous. Due to their multiple degrees of freedom, they are able to adapt easily to different environments. These robots base their locomotion to two different elements: tendon cables or fluid pressure elements. Normally these robots are divided in sections and each section has its independent degrees of freedom. Therefore, if the length of the robot increases, the number of sections increases as well. This also means an increment in the diameter for each section and a more complex control for the whole system. In this paper we introduce the concept of a novel water-jet long-reach robot, which allows increasing the length of the robot without affect its number of elements, control complexity and diameter. Due to its characteristics, it is possible to use this robot in different environments, confined or opened spaces. We test the performance of the first prototype in different scenarios in order to validate our concept.